Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) – a major driver in maximizing business profitability?

Increasing market dynamics and volatility put more emphasis on achieving planning excellence and raise the general level of attention for this topic. Although a recognized concept for many years, comprehensive deployment of S&OP has only occurred in recent years within the process industries.

Some of the key findings regarding the current status of S&OP process maturity include

Many of the responding companies in the industry sector have already established a well-organized S&OP process, however some weaker areas with improvement potential exist.

A clear link between the planning maturity and profitability of companies confirms a clear value creation hypothesis.

Ongoing economic macro trends suggest that the significance of S&OP will continue in the future.

The study highlights the outstanding role of a company-wide integrated Sales & Operations Planning process as a driver for sustainability, customer orientation and profit maximization. Therefore S&OP is an increasingly important element of strategic and operational corporate management.

Therefore, BearingPoint proposes a value-oriented approach to evaluate and improve current S&OP processes to be prepared for upcoming challenges.

If you would like to know how your sales and operations planning compares to our industry benchmark and maturity model you can take our survey for free. Click here to take the survey and we will get in touch with you to share the analysis and results.